Sebastian Schäffer is Director of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM), a regional think tank based in Vienna. He also serves as Secretary General of the Danube Rectors’ Conference (DRC), a network of more than 60 universities in the wider Danube Region. In 2011, this Munich-born political scientist founded SSC Europe, a competence network for Seminars, Simulations and Consulting. Sebastian has held several positions as a lecturer and research fellow at universities and institutions in Germany, where he also earned two master's degrees. His areas of expertise include European integration, EU enlargement and future scenarios. He is the author of more than 100 articles and papers, and has written as well as edited several books, among them Ukraine in Central and Eastern Europe.